Ποιότητα ζωής γυναικών με οστεοπόρωση.

INTRODUCTION: Osteoporosis is characterized by decreased bone mass. The absence of symptoms is characteristic for osteoporosis as it appears after a fracture. AIM: To investigate quality of life in women with osteoporosis and the associated determinants. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted and a convenience sampling method was used. Study population included 49 women with osteoporosis, 57 women with osteopenia and 45 women with normal bone mass according to bone quality as it was measured with bone densitometry (DXA) method for hip. SF-36v2 was used to measure quality of life and FRAX questionnaire to predict the ten-years risk for fracture. RESULTS: According to multivariate analysis, increased age of women was associated with increased risk for the occurrence of major osteoporotic fracture (p<0.001) and hip fracture (p<0.001). Moreover, patients with osteoporosis had higher risk to be in high level risk group for the occurrence of major osteoporotic fracture (p=0.018) and hip fracture (p=0.023) compared to women with normal bone mass. Decreased age of women was associated with increased physical component score (p<0.001). Also, women with normal bone mass, patients with osteopenia and women without comorbidity had higher physical component score (p<0.001 and p=0.005 respectively) and mental component score (p<0.001 in both cases). CONCLUSION: Appropriate diagnosis and therapy of osteoporosis could promote in a great way the quality of life of patients with osteoporosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]